the officials of the labor department say hurricane sandy, which shook the country's east coast in late october, did not substantively impact the national unemployment estimates for november. >>> a legal battle between two smartphone giants, apple of the united states and samsung of south korea, rages on. the california federal district court has reopened the case over smartphone and other patents. the court has resumed a hearing before handing down its final ruling. back in august, a jury ordered samsung to pay more than $1 billion to damages in apple. now samsung is seeking to overturn that verdict. in thursday's session the judge urged the two sides to reach a settlement on a global level. she indicated that her court is ready to do everything in its power for that purpose. but apple and samsung remained wide apart in their claims. the california court plans to hand down a separate ruling for each of the many cases the two firms have been fighting, making judgments on the amounts of damages and which types of samsung devices violate apple's patent rights. in the latest case, apple is